Bridge Project is dedicated to exposing the conservative movement’s dishonest tactics, dismantling its extreme ideology, and shining light on the moneyed special interests that fund it.

Issues: Gas

With the President in Utah this afternoon to reportedly announce plans to shrink two national monuments, American Bridge is responding by shining a bright light on Donald Trump’s true motives. The reality is that the move is designed to appease big oil companies despite opposition by people across Utah, notably the Native Americans to whom the land is sacred.

“The motives behind Donald Trump’s executive order are about one thing: putting more money in the pockets of big oil. Moving forward with this plan at the expense of our environment and the wishes of people across Utah is just the latest display of the President’s reckless priorities,” said American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah.

Here are three things to know about Trump’s plan:

1) Trump’s Monument Review Was Intended To Free Up Federal Land For Oil Drilling

Issues

Politicians & Pundits

When an improving economy and recent instability in the Middle East pushed gasoline prices up from artificial lows caused by the recession, conservatives conveniently attributed higher costs to President Obama’s policies. In reality, the president has little control over the price of oil, which is traded on a world market, and neither increased drilling nor the Keystone XL pipeline would have much of an impact on gas prices. Despite conservative rhetoric about the president’s supposed hostility to the oil and gas industries, domestic oil production is at its highest in nearly a decade; there are more rigs in operation than any time since 1985; and American crude oil exports are the highest they’ve ever been.